Ross Penman Acupuncture Talk at UTS

Here's Ross Penman and myself after the talk

Hi Blogs,

We had another talk for the Tai Yi Society just recently at UTS. Managed to get Ross Penman to come in. Now internationally you may not of heard of him, but here in Sydney he's well known. Very interesting man and a very successful practitioner. He works from the ground floor of a mansion in the exclusive suburb of Neutral Bay in Thrupp Street. I had to work hard to get him to come in and I had to book him 3 months ahead before the talk! Anyway it all came together and it was the first public talk he had done in at least 25 years! It was quite an achievement. Even more so as he wouldn't tell me what he was actually going to talk about.

***Latest update ***

Ross asked me to remove the synopsis and biography

No problem. Stay posted!

Quick UTS TCM Lecturer Profile: Congxing Yang

Smiles turn to horror as an assignment is revisited...

Here’s a privileged glimpse into a tutorial and a snapshot look at one of the lecturers at UTS in action. Thanks Congxing.
Firstly the reason I took these pics is that I have always loved the documentary feel of a sequence of pictures of a person interacting, talking and expressing different parts of their personality. These pics are an attempt to capture that. But mostly they are smiling ones… Even more satisfying is that I was allowed to capture them in tutorial in the office of the individual. So there’s a bit of flavour there.
Congxing Yang, everybody calls him Cong which is pronounced “Chong”, is our main lecturer for Chinese Herbal Formulas 1. Herbal formulas are a nightmarish dip into the Chinese language, in depth reasoning of TCM diagnostic theories (mind bending) and massive amounts of recall of individual Chinese herbs and also of herbs mixed up in different groupings-even more confusing!
Anyway Cong put on a wild fire tutorial at 12 today. That’s lunch time isn’t?? Anyway the exam is tomorrow and he provided a window of opportunity to stretch out some last minute ideas and fill in a few more gaps. You know that’s pretty cool, shows a lot of passion for the subject and demonstrates heaps of patience too. I think the main thing you can see from these pics is Cong’s sense of humour. So dedication and a sense of humour. Rare, rare, rare! Thanks Cong!

Clinic Skate

J skating ...

You know when things get pretty busy it always good to let off some steam. At Uni this can develop out in pretty fun ways. Observe the ancient art of Chinese Medicine Skating. For those not initiated in this art all I can say is that it helps the Qi.

The Good, The Bad and THE Trashy

This is one of the best line ups of all timeMore of an idea of how we roll TCM Sydney! Even better line up!We had a Fourth year send off celebration. Now technically no one has graduated, but they have to go to China for 3 months to intern in a Hospital . So this is the last chance for everyone to get together after the majority of studying is done, and why not?

The Tai Yi Society organised it, I'm and executive member. I'm second from right in the top picture with the others from the society. I'll spare you from any of the other pics during the night. The theme was the good, the bad and the trashy. So a few people turned up as good super heroes and trashy nurses. I wasn't brave enough this year and I don't have a nurses outfit either. Was a great night and we had people from all years and we also combined with Western Sydney University and another college. I definitely met some great people and had a great time!

Kidney 1, on the sole of the foot

We went over the points today on the Whiteboard. Top left Kidney 1 (KD 1): Dangers-it SMARTS. Problems-it hurts. Both are correct Michael needling me up on the point
I turned the camera on me just at the right moment-no joke, no exaggeration. That is excactly what it felt like!!!
Michael demonstrating the point. If you notice I have hit dead centre on my cross mark!
As you may know by now we have been practicing the more difficult acupuncture points in the Clinic 4 practical classes. Today the practical vaguely flashed into my mind in the morning on the way in to Uni and then I tried to flush it out of my mind straight away. The Kidney Channel starts on the base of the foot. It’s a strong point and it hurts. It hurts going in and then it hurts going out! However I am glad I have done it now as I can needle this point with confidence as I have been needled here and I’ve needled it on someone else (thanks Michael). BTW this point isn’t needled much in the real world, and never have any fear if you go to get acupuncture as any good acupuncturist will explain what they’re doing. You don’t have to agree to any of it.
Also these pics come courtesy of my new phone which I am very happy with, thanks to a very kind and generous benefactor :)